Foxconn may transfer engineers from China to staff its under-construction facility in Wisconsin due to a lack of appropriate skilled labor in the area, with Apple's assembly partner keen to meet employment targets in order to retain $3 billion in state and local incentives.

President Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and Foxconn chairman Terry Gou breaking ground on construction of the Wisconsin plant in June 2018

Foxconn is producing a major LCD plant in Mount Pleasant, Wis., with the facility expected to be a major job creation opportunity, as well as a way to bring more manufacturing to the United States. While work on the plant is ongoing, it is suggested there may be some issues staffing the operation once it is constructed.

Sources for the Wall Street Journal familiar with the matter claim Foxconn has been trying to internally transfer some of its Chinese engineers to the Wisconsin plant, to supplement the staff at the facility.

Foxconn was offered a package of state benefits worth $3 billion in taxes and other "performance-based incentives" to invest $10 billion into the project, as well as $764 million from local authorities. While the benefits successfully tempted Foxconn into agreeing to locating the factory in the state, the manufacturer still has to meet a number of targets relating to hiring, wages, and investments by specific dates to receive the full package.

It is said the company agreed to build an LCD panel factory, creating 13,000 jobs over a number of years, with the vast majority made up of factory workers accompanied by engineers and business support staff.

The report claims Foxconn has encountered the problem of finding skilled workers for the factory. The state reached a jobless rate of just 3 percent in September, below the national average of 3.7 percent for the month.

As for acquiring talent from other firms, Loretta Olson of Express Employment Professionals and member of the Racine County Economic Development Corp., advised that "It's very difficult to find skilled labor in our market. According to Olson, employers in the state are improving benefits for employees who may be targets for poaching by Foxconn.

While Foxconn is working with local schools and colleges to try and produce new workers, Olson believes "Foxconn is going to fall short in terms of finding the people they need," suggesting the company will have to recruit from outside the area.

In a statement about its hiring plans provided for the report, Foxconn advised its "first commitment remains unchanged," confirming it still plans to employ 13,000 people, and that the majority "will work on high-value production and engineering assignments and in the research and development field."

Foxconn donated $100 million to the University of Wisconsin-Madison's school of engineering, to create a research institute for collaboration with the manufacturer, but school head Ian Robertson suggested there currently aren't enough people to supply Foxconn with new staff. The school of engineering counts 4,5000 undergraduates and 1,400 graduate students, but even so Robertson said "We're going to have to attract more people, and so is Foxconn."

The company also has to compete with other major firms in the region for engineering talent, with rival employers Oshkosh, Briggs & Stratton, and Harley Davidson already established, while multinationals Haribo and heavy equipment producer Komatsu are also building their own facilities.

The LCD factory was initially believed to be aimed at large display panels, but it is thought it could end up making small and medium-sized panels due to the risks of transporting larger screens. As Foxconn is an Apple partner and owner of iPad and iPhone display producer Sharp, it is possible for some of the factory's output to end up in future Apple products.

Update: A later statement from the company provided toGizmodo denied the claims in the report. "We can categorically state that the assertion that we are recruiting Chinese personnel to staff our Wisconsin project is untrue" Foxconn advised, reiterating its priority of focusing on hiring and training workers throughout the state and adding "We will supplement that recruitment from other US locations as required."

America's political hacks care as much about education as they do about affordable healthcare, infrastructure or electoral democracy. Which means "not at all". Being voted into office is only a job skill. An ignorant, bigoted population makes that practical for the most corrupt demographic in decades.

Now *this* is the funniest way to start Election Day: first it was 13,000 jobs and that got revised to 3,000 "knowledge-based workers" and now even *that* looks imperiled.

And all at a hefty cost to Wisconsin voters. For those of you old enough (which means, no one), this will play out like a reboot of "Gung Ho," only the Chinese version.

Good. They will work here and PAY TAXES HERE. Something tells me they will get paid (( SLIGHTLY )) more than just 20-30k a year, which means they will be in the group who actually pays 97% of all income taxes, unlike the bottom 50% of taxpayers who only pay only 3% of all income tax paid by all who work in the US. This seems like a win to me, if that happens.

But, how could that happen that America is not able to find engineeres here? Might have to do something with the public education that costs a lot, and produces a near nill at the end in terms of the most important professions in the 21 century. This has to change.

Or, it also miht have to do with unions that killed the competition and produced mediocre engineers at the very high cost, which led the companies to seek engineers out in other markets.

Now *this* is the funniest way to start Election Day: first it was 13,000 jobs and that got revised to 3,000 "knowledge-based workers" and now even *that* looks imperiled.

And all at a hefty cost to Wisconsin voters. For those of you old enough (which means, no one), this will play out like a reboot of "Gung Ho," only the Chinese version.

At then end, thousands of Chinese workers will be imported due to the shortage. Welcome to the America...

Again. Remember, they provided a lot of the workforce for the transcontinental railroad as well as for mining. Americans need to look in the mirror and realize there are people in other countries willing to provide "manual labor" while way too many of us simply want to sit at a desk and "earn" money. Of course, this article talks about technically skilled labor, something the US is deficient in. All we seem to graduate from college are lawyers, stock brokers, and people with MBA's.

anton zuykov said: Good. They will work here and PAY TAXES HERE. Something tells me they will get paid (( SLIGHTLY )) more than just 20-30k a year, which means they will be in the group who actually pays 97% of all income taxes, unlike the bottom 50% of taxpayers who only pay only 3% of all income tax paid by all who work in the US. This seems like a win to me, if that happens.

No much of a win for Wisconsin, as the $3 billion in tax incentives means that each engineer would basically have to pay $230,000 in state and local taxes ALONE to offset the giveaway.

anton zuykov said: Good. They will work here and PAY TAXES HERE. Something tells me they will get paid (( SLIGHTLY )) more than just 20-30k a year, which means they will be in the group who actually pays 97% of all income taxes, unlike the bottom 50% of taxpayers who only pay only 3% of all income tax paid by all who work in the US. This seems like a win to me, if that happens.

No much of a win for Wisconsin, as the $3 billion in tax incentives means that each engineer would basically have to pay $230,000 in state and local taxes ALONE to offset the giveaway.

How is that any different from any other case? Did you just discover that businesses do not pay taxes? It is always people who pay them, while businesses simply pass them along to either their consumers AND/OR to their employees! That is why raising (mandatorily via law) a min wage or taxes on businesses universally ends up hurting the very people the “good” people are trying to help in the first place.

Also, they are not "tax incentives". They are simply lower taxes = you simply take away less from the business. Because you sound like you give a business someone else's money so they could come over and build stuff. In reality, you let them keep more of their money and call it an incentive. Talking about newspeak ...

How is that any different from any other case? Did you just discover that businesses do not pay taxes? It is always people who pay them, while businesses simply pass them along to either their consumers AND/OR to their employees! That is why raising (mandatorily via law) a min wage or taxes on businesses universally ends up hurting the very people the “good” people are trying to help in the first place.

That depends on how the tax money is spent, and if the minimum wage is enough to encourage spending beyond the basics.

The money multiplier effect in those cases can result in greater economic growth. This has been seen in Canada with some recent minimum wage increases.

Tax breaks sometimes result in job growth, but most businesses will only hire if they need the staff, not because they have "extra" money. That just gets pocketed, or shared with stock holders.

Now *this* is the funniest way to start Election Day: first it was 13,000 jobs and that got revised to 3,000 "knowledge-based workers" and now even *that* looks imperiled.

And all at a hefty cost to Wisconsin voters. For those of you old enough (which means, no one), this will play out like a reboot of "Gung Ho," only the Chinese version.

Good. They will work here and PAY TAXES HERE. Something tells me they will get paid (( SLIGHTLY )) more than just 20-30k a year, which means they will be in the group who actually pays 97% of all income taxes, unlike the bottom 50% of taxpayers who only pay only 3% of all income tax paid by all who work in the US.

Oh, you mean the 50% that is comprised of seniors, vets, and those whose poverty income puts them below the income tax threshold.

The narrative of this segment just being people kicking back enjoying the good life sans taxes is a myth. Being too old, too poor, or too injured to pay income tax is not a benefit to that demographic.

Also, they are not "tax incentives". They are simply lower taxes = you simply take away less from the business. Because you sound like you give a business someone else's money so they could come over and build stuff. In reality, you let them keep more of their money and call it an incentive. Talking about newspeak ...

This is the one thing that gets me that most and people just can't wrap their heads around it.

WI did not "give" Foxconn any money. They just said "if you build here, we will tax you less". So they still are making money compared to if Foxconn had not built there, but just not taking in as much taxes.

People be all like "We gave Foxscamm $3 billizillion dollaz!" No, you gave Foxconn nothing but tax breaks. Had Foxconn built elsewhere they would pay taxes elsewhere and brought jobs elsewhere.

This is because we do not have enough people going into engineering. The reason we had high unemployment with people 21 to 30 from 2008 to 2016 and we have lots of people defaulting on their student loans is due to the fact most had college degrees that companies saw no value in. When my son was in college over half of the students in the engineering school was Asian and most of them were not US citizens and plan to go back home. My son got a degree in operations management and finance and had no issue finding a job and is getting paid higher than most people coming out of college.

The other issue they picked WI for a plant out in the middle of no where and getting people to move there is not going to be easy. No one wants to move anymore for jobs.

Also, they are not "tax incentives". They are simply lower taxes = you simply take away less from the business. Because you sound like you give a business someone else's money so they could come over and build stuff. In reality, you let them keep more of their money and call it an incentive. Talking about newspeak ...

This is the one thing that gets me that most and people just can't wrap their heads around it.

WI did not "give" Foxconn any money. They just said "if you build here, we will tax you less". So they still are making money compared to if Foxconn had not built there, but just not taking in as much taxes.

People be all like "We gave Foxscamm $3 billizillion dollaz!" No, you gave Foxconn nothing but tax breaks. Had Foxconn built elsewhere they would pay taxes elsewhere and brought jobs elsewhere.

Yeah, most people have no clue about this, All states and cities do the exact same thing to attract companies to bring jobs to an area.

I worked for a start-up and founders went to the local governments and asked for a tax break to help the company to build a new 500,000 SqFt design and manufacturing facility, all but the local school board got on board (which was the largest tax). The head of the school board accused our CFO of trying to bribe the school board, he use those words in a public meeting. Part of the deal was the company would give the school all the old computers and install a start of the are network and provide IT support in exchange for the tax break. The CFO came back, told everyone at the company what happen, and that fall the school board was up for re-election and the most of the people at the company lived in the school district and we voted out the school board. The new board agreed to the deal and 2 years later the company was bought out for $4B and the CFO returned to the school board and gave them a $30M check as thank you for the tax break.

Also the company moves 1000's of high paying jobs into the area, we paid local and school taxes, we bough homes and paid property taxes and we all shopped in the area. When the company was bought out most of us all had stock options and paid taxes on the capitals gains. The local government and school was making lots of money that was for sure.